can
rise from reading these volumes without being glad of a knowledge of
these two men whose patriotism was of a high order. Walpole's several
characterizations, in a summing up of Palmerston, display his knowledge
of men. "Men pronounced Lord Melbourne indifferent," he wrote, "Sir
Robert Peel cold, Lord John Russell uncertain, Lord Aberdeen weak, Lord
Derby haughty, Mr. Gladstone subtle, Lord Beaconsfield unscrupulous. But
they had no such epithet for Lord Palmerston. He was as earnest as Lord
Melbourne was indifferent, as strong as Lord Aberdeen was weak, as
honest as Lord Beaconsfield was unscrupulous. Sir Robert Peel repelled
men by his temper; Lord John Russell, by his coldness; Lord Derby
offended them by his pride; Mr. Gladstone distracted them by his
subtlety. But Lord Palmerston drew both friends and foes together by the
warmth of his manners and the excellence of his heart" (I, 525).

Walpole's knowledge of continental politics was apparently thorough. At
all events, any one who desires two entrancing tales, should read the
chapter on "The Union of Italy," of which Cavour and Napoleon III are
the heroes; and the two chapters entitled "The Growth of Prussia and the
Decline of France" and "The Fall of the Second Empire." In these two
chapters Napoleon III again appears, but Bismarck is the hero. Walpole's
chapter on "The American Civil War" is the writing of a broad-minded,
intelligent man, who could look on two sides.

Of Walpole's last book, "Studies in Biography," published in 1907, I
have left myself no time to speak. Those who are interested in it should
read the review of it in the _Nation_ early this year, which awards it
high and unusual commendation.

The readers of Walpole's histories may easily detect in them a treatment
not possible from a mere closet student of books and manuscripts. A
knowledge of the science of government and of practical politics is
there. For Walpole was of a political family. He was of the same house
as the great Whig Prime Minister, Sir Robert; and his father was Home
Secretary in the Lord Derby ministry of 1858, and again in 1866, when he
had to deal with the famous Hyde Park meeting of July 23. On his
mother's side he was a grandson of Spencer Perceval, the Prime Minister
who in 1812 was assassinated in the lobby of the House of Commons.
Walpole's earliest publication was a biography of Perceval.

And Spencer Walpole himself was a man of affairs. A clerk in the War
Offi